Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to (technically) gazump someone?

110 replies

WaitedForGodot · 06/02/2017 17:27

long time lurker, first time poster

Went to view a house at the weekend that we loved - we've got a 13 month old ds and another on the way, and we're looking for a nice family home to live in for the next 20 or so years (with any luck). We're in the London commuter belt, so there's not exactly a glut of lovely family homes at a price we can afford. This one ticked virtually all the boxes, and was on at a great price as the seller had had a previous sale fall through and wanted a quick sale to avoid losing the house they were buying.

Rang the agent this morning to tell them we loved the house and arranged to do a second viewing tomorrow. Next thing we heard was at 3pm when we got a phone call to say that they'd received several offers, accepted one at asking price and were cancelling our second viewing.

We were pretty sold on the house in, and would just have been making absolutely certain it was right with the second viewing. And we reckon it's definitely worth over asking price (which was £50k less than it had been priced at when it sold the first time). So we came back and offered £10k over asking price, and are waiting to hear what comes out of that.

Anyway, I rang my mum to give her an update on what was going on (she's been following all our househunting via RightMove), and her immediate response was 'it doesn't seem right for you to make an offer after they've accepted one from someone else, how would you feel if that happened to you?'

AIBU to feel like we're not doing anything that wrong here? If the agent had kept us in the loop, we'd have made an offer before someone else's had been accepted, and given it's the same day it's not like they'll have shelled out for any surveys or anything.

or should we just lump it and accept that we're dirty gazumpers willing to snatch a house from under someone else's nose? Blush

OP posts:
bimbobaggins · 06/02/2017 18:13

It sounds to me as if the

bimbobaggins · 06/02/2017 18:13

Sorry posted too soon, as if the estate agent wanted you to increase your offer? How do you know they had defeated received a new offer?

Autumntactics · 06/02/2017 18:15

I tried to gazump some people on a flat once in a really fast moving property market, I was young and didn't realise that's what I was doing. The EA refused, but I was first on the list for another similar flat that came up, went to see it and put an offer straight in and got it, so my attempts did get me somewhere if not the original flat!

GabsAlot · 06/02/2017 18:16

it is gazumping but thatst illegal here in england

the ea should really have enquired where u stood in terms of price before cancelling the viewing-go for it (unless its my sis new house in which case she'll kill u)

barinatxe · 06/02/2017 18:18

YABVU! Gazumping may be legal but it is immoral. If someone has accepted an offer, then they should honour it.

If you live by the sword...

amidawish · 06/02/2017 18:18

hmmm this sounds fishy to me. are you sure the estate agent wasn't just putting you under pressure to offer. "sorry we have to cancel your second viewing". Hmm

specialsubject · 06/02/2017 18:18

Gazumping is not illegal in England. Nothing is fixed until contract exchange.

No one has spent on surveys etc, this is a bidding war. Agent needs to get max price although they balance increased commission against effort required.

amidawish · 06/02/2017 18:19

and no YANBU!
it was the same day AND the house was still on the market when you viewed.

measles64 · 06/02/2017 18:19

Just be aware that if you have a big mortgage request to make you may get knocked back by the mortgage company who can rightly say it is not worth that much, it happens all the time. If you are paying cash then you can do as you wish.

harderandharder2breathe · 06/02/2017 18:20

You are gazumping someone.

That's not a very nice thing to do.

I can see why you did it but that doesn't make it morally right.

KitKat1985 · 06/02/2017 18:20

It's not a nice thing to do, but the property market is pretty ruthless and you can't always afford to be nice. It would have been worse if you had gazumped once the other buyers had paid out for surveys etc.

WhereYouLeftIt · 06/02/2017 18:22

OP, I speak as someone who was the other person in your situation. We had offered the full asking price on a property, it had been accepted, then someone who had also viewed offered more. I did not think they were in the wrong to do so. We went to sealed bids, we won.

The EA does not seem to be doing their job. I believe they are legally obliged to pass on all bids to the vendor, and they should be trying to get them the best price. To not have told you that other offers had been/were being received so that you did not offer at that point - well, I wonder if the EA has a 'preferred' bidder. Or maybe they're just incompetent. Regardless, I think you did the right thing in putting in your offer. It doesn't mean you'll get the house, maybe the other buyer will up their offer above what you can afford - but you did the right thing to make the offer.

originalbiglymavis · 06/02/2017 18:25

I believe it's illegal in Scotland. When we bought our place the bloody seller tried to gazump us by saying they had decided that they wanted more money. I told them to piss off. Still got the property though.

Original poster
WaitedForGodot · 06/02/2017 18:31

I'd be surprised if the offer that was accepted wasn't genuine? I mean, I know the EA stereotypes, but when the seller wants a quick sale to not lose their house, telling an interested potential buyer that the house has sold to push a bit more money out of them seems pretty high risk to me. Maybe we're being played for fools but I'd be very surprised, they never suggested anything about us making an offer when telling us it was gone.

OP posts:
limitedperiodonly · 06/02/2017 18:31

You've offered more money. It's up to the buyer to take it or not.

Headofthehive55 · 06/02/2017 18:35

I think the EA is at fault a lot of the time. We came directly from a viewing to the EA to put in an offer to be told oh we aren't taking offers its been sold...we had driven Hundreds of miles to view and were annoyed. We insisted that they put our offer through. We ended up with the house as we must have bid more.

Headofthehive55 · 06/02/2017 18:36

I found out later who was the other bidder...and the chain was with that EA....

SerialReJoiner · 06/02/2017 18:42

Is it only gazumping if the offer has been accepted and then rejected for the higher one?

When we viewed our house I asked the vendor what he was looking to get for the property (was listed at a "oiro" price). We chose to offer a bit more than the other two offers they'd received as we were desperate for the house! I don't think that is gazumping though, since they hadn't accepted an offer yet?

ChasedByBees · 06/02/2017 18:45

Meh, I would. It's the same day.

Original poster
WaitedForGodot · 06/02/2017 18:45

Gazumping is only when an offer has been accepted, so you're in the clear.

I'll be the one in gazumper's hell, never quite securing that perfect 4-bed in Paradise...

OP posts:
RebeccaCloud9 · 06/02/2017 18:46

I wouldn't feel bad doing it at this point, but would not gazump any further through the process eg when surveys had been done etc.

PunjanaTea · 06/02/2017 18:51

I've been gazumped a lot later than this and whilst I'd be annoyed by this I would be nowhere near as pissed off as I was that time.

I do wonder why people accept offers when they still have people viewing though. There's no way I would accept an offer if I still had someone coming to take a second look.

tealady · 06/02/2017 18:54

If the vendor is after a quick sale, they may be more interested in your position (cash buyer etc) than whether you are offering more than the other potential buyer.

Autumntactics · 06/02/2017 19:07

And it's not always in the EAs best interests either to get a higher offer, as their commission is only a small % they might prefer a quicker sale for cashflow than a later higher value sale - the difference might only be £20 to them.

NoNeedToArgue · 06/02/2017 19:07

I'll make you feel better OP. We didn't even have our house on the market when we saw the house we are living in now, but DH saw it on Rightmove and it was so perfect for us. We viewed it one evening and adored it. Next day EA phoned to say an offer under the asking price had been accepted. We were so gutted... So. We put a hand-written letter through the letterbox that night, saying that we adored the house and if they gave us a week to sell our house, would give them the asking price. They phoned my DH that night and said they'd give us the week and see what happened. We managed to get an adkibg price offer on our house in two days Smile and although a bidding war ensued... Here we are! I don't regret it for a second. This is our forever home and i love, love, love it.